Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Lawless Review Discussion

Lawless is the type of movie that you
won’t know was shallow until the end. It’s murky, entertaining, and provocative
throughout. I kept getting the feeling the film was going somewhere important.
It just needed to build a few more pieces. Progress a few more relationships.
When the end hits, I was left thinking “is that all?”.*

The
moonshine business and wild west feel of prohibition are invitations for men to
form their own rules about everything. The arbiter of all is Violence. Men’s
reputations are made on it. It safeguards their land and livelihood. Men get
women with displays of their master of it. Even a character as adverse to all
expression of the form, like Jack (Shia LeBeouf), is compelled instinctually
to, at least, fake it till he finally commits.

Beyond
the rewards from its use, Violence is left as a scale. Success is directly
correlated to “how far” a man takes Violence. That limit appears set at birth. The
primal draw of its power is intuitively understood and not questioned. But that’s
like saying “Hey Guy! Remember how you’re human. And we’re human!”. A
reflection of what I already know isn’t interesting.

The
narrative sings the first few notes of such a well-known song, the rest of the
story will flash through your head in an instant. The struggle of one man
coming to grips with Violence seems silly in this context. Nearly every single
other male in the entire film is better apt and more comfortable with Violence.
The scale comes in again to insinuate that maturity level also directly
correlates to Violence. Consequences of any particular violent act has nothing
to do with morals or honor and all to do with the ripple effect. “Who will this
piss off? Can I kill the man who comes after me if I kill this guy?”.

Maggie
(Jessica Chastain) alone is able to break this fixation on Violence (tell-tale,
she wears red). Whether because of exhaustion (somewhere between coping with
and ignoring Violence), fear , or a stronger will than to be defined by it is
unclear.